Shuffle
by Madison Bellows
Summary: Ficlet challenge that I decided to do instead of work on my epics. For fun, Flack/OC centric but nice little bits no matter who you may ship. Challenge from siriusly s*x at LJ. Open to all! Complete.
1. Chapter 1

_**The Background**_

Sometimes you need a little challenge, and so I got this one off the LJ:

_Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.  
Write a ficlet related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the ficlet; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards! Do ten of these, then post them._

Not songfics per se, more like ficlets inspired by song. I like exercises like this because they let me spontaneously let things flow, which is fun when you are working on so many structured stories. Think of these as little scenes that may fall within "What It Means" or "The Saints Aren't Coming" or maybe even in their own alternative universes. Probably contain spoilers, but nothing blatant. As for the songs they are as follows:

**Vampire Weekend**_ Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa _(Band makes it big through blogging? Indie goes mainstream at its finest)

**Lucy Gossett**_Strong Enough _(my musical muse and her lyrics can be found in NOLA Rising)

**Mandippal Jandu **_Everything I am _(A little find from Toronto, good laid back music)

**The Magnetic Fields**_ Xavier Says_ (This whole album is a little trippy and was hard to write to)

**Rufus Wainwright**_ Baby _(I heart Rufus and his baroque pop, but it was nice to have something not so over the top to come up)

**The Hives**_ You got it all...wrong _(I need a little angry music every now and this and I totally think this is a chase scene song)

**The City Life **_Mendenhalla_(I love these guys and not just because they are friends, check out their myspace page thecitylife1)

**Stereophonics**_Maybe Tomorrow Live _(I have loved them since first hearing them in 1999, and even though I normally hate live albums, but this one actually works)

**Irma Thomas**_ Wish Someone would care _(A classic and I worship her, if you don't know who she is, you are missing out)

**Kasier Chiefs**_ Ruby _(I can't even begin to tell you why I found their songs hawt, but I do!)

And I will admit I did clean them up somewhat before I published them, so if the song ended in the middle of a sentence, I either finished it or deleted it. Fandom being CSI:NY, these are mostly Flack centric, but assume Gus is around. 


	2. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

___**Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa **_

_A hot summer where anyone with any brains got the hell out of the city and scuttled off to the beach or mountains with their designer luggage and their designer dogs and their designer drugs. You would think with half of the city leaving crime would be down. But of course, it wasn't the case because those left behind were the ones that were poor and desperate and thus more likely to commit crime. _

_Flack wiped the sweat from his brow, marveling at how cool Gus looked standing beside him, with a smirk at his overheated state. _

_"Sugar, when are ya gonna learn that this is nothing to me?" _

_"Shutit swamp girl, if it wasn't for you we would be at Mac's cabin right now". _

_Gus rolled her eyes,"You don't even like nature". _

_Flack sniffed, "I like not being up to my eyeballs in paperwork and dbs and right now I could got for some sand in my toes and beer in my hand". _

_Gus protested, "I didn't mean to get us stuck all summer, it was an accident and you know that". _

_"Pissing off the commissioner is not an accident, especially when the lab is undergoing a re-accreditation", Flack retorted. _

_Gus couldn't help but protest, "We don't even work for the lab!" _

_Flack shot her a long look. _

_She knew she was in the wrong and calling the commissioner a useless political whore probably wasn't the best of ideas under any circumstances, she just happened to announce it, loudly, while getting off the elevator into a lobby press conference with said commissioner. Thus any plans for a summer vacation were squashed as fast as 'denied' could be scrawled across their request. _

_Gus sighed, "Look, I'll put the sheets in the freezer, shake up a batch of gimlets and we can crank the AC on high until the power goes out and then we will already be sweaty so it won't matter if we get even hotter". _

_Gus raised her eyebrows at Flack as he dimpled back, "Fine, but you are gonna be the one to knock on doors all morning"._


	3. Strong Enough

_**A/N If you want to read the lyrics of this song, go to chapter 49 of NOLA Rising. End shameless plug! Also, this is a take on Flack not from my stories, but an alternate universe where maybe things aren't so nice and Hallmarky!**_

* * *

Flack sighed as he boxed up the last of the belongings for goodwill, he hadn't counted on it being this hard. He hadn't even seen his father since his retirement, hadn't really talked to him since the last time death had darkened this doorstep. 

But now, here he was sitting in an almost empty house out in Queens going through the trash the vulture-like family members had left behind. 

"You're getting dust on your dress blues", she said from the doorway. 

Flack just shrugged in response, the state of his dress blues was the last thing on his mind, he instead was ensconced in guilt fueled grief over the deterioration of his relationship with his father. He had started it in his urge to be something other than in the shadows of a legend, something other than junior. It had been so much easier for his siblings that chose other paths but then he chose this road, this road of being strong, of protecting and serving, of being New York's finest. Things used to seem so black and white for him, back when he was a young boot in patrol and following in the footsteps of his father. In the before, before his mother got sick, before his brother was convicted of rape, before his father turned his back, before his family fell apart. 

Now he always seemed to be in the gray zone, unsure of what was right or wrong anymore. He felt her come behind him, wrapping her arms around him, resting her head on his back as she whispered, "You don't always have to be strong, you know". As her kiss landed on the back of his neck, the floodgates opened up and he started sobbing into his hands, wondering how had he let so much slip away. 


	4. Everything I am

_**A/N: I am pretty sure this was written as a love song as the artist is like 12...not really, but to me he seems 12, but anyhow, this is the picture my muse got in its mind listening to this and thus it became a parent/child fic. And mom can be anyone you want it to be...**_

* * *

Flack sat in the chair in the living room, music quietly playing on the stereo, at that peaceful time of day somewhere between dark and light on a rare night of silent cell phones enjoying just being.

Of course it helped that his reason for being was asleep in his arms, perfectly content after a feeding from her mother's breast, his other reason for being. It hadn't always been easy, and the future didn't look like it was going to be a clear road either, but somehow Flack knew that at the end of shift, things were always going to work out as long as he had his family to come home to. 

And that was really what it was all about, wasn't it? The thing his mother had tried to drill in his head over every impossibly chaotic family dinner, that he would find his other half and all would be right with the world and that his reason for going out there in the muck and grime and worst of humanity everyday was to work on making the world a better place for the future, his future. 

Flack hummed along with the music, singing a few lines to his sleeping infant daughter, "I will give you everything I am, with everything I am, I love everything you are".


	5. Xavier Says

Flack stood over the table seeking a shot that didn't seem impossible, it had been a long day with three dbs back to back over as many days and brass was breathing down all of their necks. 

Danny was checking out the badge bunnies lined up at the bar, watching them with their short skirts and caked on make-up. 

"Let it go, Messer, we have nothing in common with them". 

"When did you become such a stick in the mud?" 

"I'm just saying they are after something different than I am". 

"You, maybe". 

"You talk like such a player, Dan-o, but sometimes I doubt if that is really the case". 

"Just because you are still hung up on a certain detective while she had moved on doesn't mean you need to take pot shots at me, Donnie boy". 

"Moved on?" Flack asked, choking on his beer, "Whadya mean by that?" 

"That pretty boy from the Mayor's office,the public relations dude, they had a date tonight", Danny explained to Flack as if he was talking to someone that wasn't quite all there. 

"Shit", Flack swore as he missed his shot, spilled his beer, and contemplated the possibility that he had lost one damn good chance at happiness.


	6. Baby

Flack watched as she stood swaying to the music, singing along like no one was around, yet another thing he loved about her, that she could act like it was the two of them even as they stood crammed by the bar waiting for a table at Sully's. Too bad he wasn't sure right now if she would ever return that feeling.

"What, what is that look for?" she questioned, a flush creeping into her cheeks. 

"Nothing, just good to know you can leave your work behind every once and a while", Flack replied, dimpling slightly and moving closer to her. 

"Sometimes you just have to let all the darkness go, blue eyes", she answered, motioning for another round of drinks knowing that if any of the boys tried, they would be waiting for days. 

"It might help that you closed most of the files on your desk". 

"We closed them, thank you very much", she said handing him his drink. To partners," she said raising her glass. 

"To partners", Flack replied, clinking his against hers. 


	7. You Got It AllWrong

_**A/N: I can't help that the song was short, though I think I may listen to The Hives on my next action sequence...**_

* * *

Flack shouldered open the door of the seedy apartment on the lower east side, wincing as the chain snapped. Danny went low as he went high. "Clear", he called. 

"Stop, NYPD", Danny called from the hallway as a figure blurred past them. 

"Dammit, I hate runners", Flack shouted as they took off after the suspect. 

As the reached the bottom of the flight of stairs and burst out in the alley, they were more than a little happy to see the suspect face down in a pile of party gravy from the dumpster that Mac and Gus had hauled into his path. 

The suspect looked up, food stuff dripping down his face, "I don't know what you think is going on, man, but you got it all wrong!" 

"Got it all wrong?" Flack echoed. 

"Looks to me like we got it all right, trash with trash", Danny replied as he cuffed the guy.


	8. Mendenhalla

_**A/N: This song makes me so happy when I listen to it, it is this uptempo kind of beachy tune about the cold (listen to it and you will see what I mean) and when we moved back from TGWN to the south, they played this song for us at the first show we went to after moving back. Go to their myspace...now!**_

* * *

"Brrr, how can it be so damn cold?" Gus said, fighting snow drifts in Central Park. 

Flack shook his head, cramming his hands into his pockets, "This is for all the times you made fun of me over the summer". 

"Thanks a lot, she said stomping through the snow away from the crime scene. 

Snowflakes fell heavy in the air, rapidly covering any evidence that may be at the scene. Gus was happy that she only had to question the nonexistent witnesses this early morning in the park as opposed to looking for a needle in a haystack like the CSI team. 

She hugged herself trying in vain to warm up, wrapping her heavy scarf even tighter around her. 

Flack had to laugh as the snowflakes stuck to her eyelashes, her exposed skin turning red in the frigid air, air that could care less that it was almost easter. He moved in close and dropped his voice as he leaned in between her hat and scarf,"Ya know, when we are done here, I got a few ways to warm you up". 

Gus raised an eyebrow, rested a hand on her cocked hip and drawled, "Like what, sugar, we gonna go south?" 


	9. Maybe Tomorrow

_**A/N:Besides Mr. Cahill and all his yumminess, Kelly Jones is definitely also in my "Top 5" so writing this was interesting because it put all sorts of naughty man nips in my head. I blame Fay.**_

* * *

Flack walked along the streets, feeling lost in the city he had grown up in. 

It was late, so late it was considered early and he had just gotten off from an 18 hour tour. He should have been heading home to get sleep before the bodies started stacking up again and his phone started buzzing. He should be finishing up the mountain of paperwork staring him down every time he walked by his desk. 

He should be...well he should be a lot of things but wandering around the gritty streets of New York in the middle of the night wasn't the best idea even with a gun and a badge. But there he was, wandering around not sure where he should go, but having a pretty good idea of where he wanted to go even though she had enough common sense to not answer the door this late. 

Assuming she was even home and not out with that pretty PR boy...

Music spilled out of a doorway, he stopped and turned toward the door, realizing it was a bar that should have closed hours earlier. "Stop being such a cop", he muttered to himself, and realized he could use a drink. 

Easing open the door, he stepped in to the darkened bar, and sat down at the bar as a hush descended over the patrons who made him for what he was the second he walked in. 

"We have the permits, officer, they all have membership cards for this club", the bartender announced immediately before Flack could even open his mouth. 

"Yeah, I just wanted a drink". 

"Sure thing, buddy, what can I get for you, on the house". 

"Scotch, make it a double on the rocks", Flack replied wearily and thinking he had never agreed with a song more, maybe tomorrow he would find his way home. 


	10. Wish Someone Would Care

_**A/N: I wish this song was longer, because I see this scene playing out in several fun ways...you will see it again most likely.**_

* * *

Flack sighed heavily. It was one of those days, weeks, months were the answers didn't seem to come except in the bottom of a pint glass. 

It was that way for the whole team, each wrapped up in their own cases and own little dramas. 

Which is how they ended up in that hole in the wall bar that reeked of smoke and liquor even after a good hosing out and had a reputation for being many things worse than a cop bar. But here they were, together in misery and determined to drink themselves out of it. 

Gus asked him for a dollar and he fished one out of his wallet without even wondering what it was for. She was back in a flash and the answer to his unasked question came blaring out over the speakers.

Stella and Lindsay joined her, breaking into impromptu karaoke with Mac and Sid on the air guitar and Hawkes drumming on the bar. 

He looked over at Danny and broke out into laughter as Adam jumped in to help with backup vocals. 

"Some folks think you're happy, when you wear your smile. What about your tribulations, and all, all of your trials... ", Stella belted out. 

Lindsay picked up with, "Smiles, smiles hide a lots a things.  
The good, the bad, the hurt, all of this goes too". 

Gus sauntered over to wear he was sitting, tugging on his tie and continued on, "And I wish, how I wish, how I wish someone would care. I wish someone would care".


	11. Ruby

_**A/N: Note to muse: quit smoking crack and get some lovin' ;)!**_

* * *

Flack slammed the chair against the table in the interrogation room, the veins in his head throbbing, "Quit with the bullshit, and tell me why the hell you killed him, Harris!" 

Gus looked in on the scene, biting her lip with lust, she knew he was just doing his job, but something about his anger was incredibly sexy. 

"Never say the romance is dead", Lindsay remarked from beside her, seeing the look on her friends face. 

"I think I need to go get some coffee", Gus squeaked as Flack glowered over the man shaking in the cold metal chair. 

"Or maybe a cold shower", Lindsay teased. 

Gus fanned herself,"I can't help it, we've barely seen each other for the past two weeks". 

Suddenly, the door to the observation room flung open and Flack stepped through, "He's all yours, Monroe, once he sees the evidence he will be singing like a bird". 

Lindsay looked from Flack to Gus, "Thanks, Flack, now maybe you two should call it a day", she said heading in to where the suspect was sitting. 

"What was that all about?" Flack asked curiously as Gus still stood there biting her lip. 

"This" she said, pouncing on him and pining him against the cinder block wall. 


End file.
